


Inhibitions

by theZanyArthropleura



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol use/consumption, Alternate Universe - everyone is in Overwatch, Drunken Confessions, F/F, Hangover, Partial Nudity, Pre-Relationship, Satya is just trying to get work done, Sleep Deprivation, Sombra partied too hard, Sort Of, eventual bed sharing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-10
Packaged: 2020-10-12 23:06:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20572427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theZanyArthropleura/pseuds/theZanyArthropleura
Summary: Sombra showing up drunk at her door after midnight was different from anyone else showing up drunk at her door after midnight, mostly because Sombra had always at least appeared to have both sufficient composure and sufficient motivation to make sure that didn't happen.Set more-or-less in the chatfic-standard 'everyone-is-friends-now-and-no-one-cares-anymore-and-also-shenanigans-happen' type of AU, but is not actually a chatfic.





	1. Chapter 1

Satya hummed faintly in contemplation as she considered the several holographic renders suspended in the air over her workstation. Hardlight was the ideal material for creating a geometrically perfect seal mechanism, and any of the five types of containment doors she’d designed would perform their function admirably, so the final choice would ultimately be a question of secondary efficiency concerns.

She’d been tasked with designing a new type of holding cell, and a corresponding mobile containment unit, for purposes ranging from medical quarantine to the effective capture of individuals for whom traditional means were insufficient. In the latter scenario, the abilities of several known enhanced individuals had been provided as example cases, though practical use in the field would likely be restricted to reasonably similar abilities, or new ones altogether.

The strange, but somewhat reassuring fact was, most of the individuals the new design might have been employed to contain now, instead, had been assigned their own _unlocked_ rooms in the very same facility.

The idea of sharing a base with numerous former criminals and mercenaries had seemed inherently improper to Satya, though given her own former association with Vishkar, it wasn’t entirely in her best interest to criticize. By now, though, the interactions had become cordial enough that it hardly seemed to matter anymore.

A sudden knock at the door brought Satya out of her thinking with a slight shudder.

There was a surreal, perhaps slightly fear-inducing quality to the way the small lights mounted on the overhang of her workstation properly illuminated her desk and chair, but left the rest of her room in relative darkness.

Still, the uncertainty lasted for only a brief moment. While quite consistently prone to its bouts of chaos, the Gibraltar base had by now become somewhere Satya felt safe, at least significantly more so than anywhere she had resided previously. The slight discomfort of her valuable solitude being disturbed now, strangely, brought with it a sense of anticipation. While there was no guarantee this interaction, whatever it was, would be pleasant…

…at some point along the way, loneliness had stopped being the only safe option, and become something Satya knew full well she was only resigning herself to out of habit.

The prospect of someone knocking at her door, in and of itself, was… puzzling, primarily because it was very much 1:07 in in the morning, but also because most official communications occurred through Athena or other long-range systems throughout the base. For the sake of her concentration, and her sanity, Satya had already disabled _one_ of those, in particular, but surely the others would have been sufficient for any matter of true import.

And so, given that Satya had already made her stance on involvement in practical jokes _inordinately_ clear, the idea that someone would wish to speak to her at this hour…

A second knock, and what sounded oddly like a tired, begging groan from outside, reminded Satya that this was a situation that did, indeed, require her _immediate_ attention. She quickly and somewhat embarrassedly rose from her desk chair – which was more of a modified version of her usual resting stool design than anything else – and walked the several steps to the door.

The woman outside had evidently been supporting herself on the outer surface, as the motion of the door sliding away into the wall nearly caused her to topple forward into the room. She thankfully managed to right herself, but it was immediately apparent that her sense of balance had become somehow impaired.

Despite the distinctive hair and cybernetic implants, it still took Satya several moments to recognize Sombra, the cryptic hacker that had once been associated with Talon. Even outside of missions, Satya had rarely seen her without her full uniform of coat, leggings, and gloves. Yet here, she wore a long and form-fitting rose dress that might have been elegant if not for the way she staggered her footing and fumbled for support against the frame of the door. Though Satya was standing just inside the threshold, Sombra was still looking about confusedly and somehow unaware of her presence.

“…Yes?” Satya demanded somewhat sternly, with crossed arms. It seemed immediately too harsh of a response, but the door being left open was already wearing at her patience.

Sombra’s eyes widened the moment they settled on Satya. “Oh. Huh, where…” she turned to look around the hallway once more, nearly losing her balance again in the process before turning back to the architech. “Sorry, I was just looking for…” She squinted and leaned slightly closer. “_Oh_, that’s you!” she exclaimed with what seemed to be actual surprise.

Satya rolled her eyes with a sigh. Technically, there wasn’t supposed to be any alcohol served on base, but Winston had long ago given up on enforcing that rule. By now, everyone was well aware that an entire storage room had been converted into a supposedly ‘underground’ bar – the mock distinction not helped by the fact that most of the watchpoint was literally buried deep into the side of a cliff.

She considered dragging the hacker back across the base to her own room then and there, but found herself hesitating. The loose teal-colored longsleeve and light grey sweatpants she’d chosen for comfort weren’t exactly immodest, but this was far from the attire she’d prefer to be seen in, especially if there were any other late-night partiers still out-and-about in the halls.

Yes… surely, that was the reason.

“I don’t…” Sombra seemed oddly nervous as she struggled to collect her thoughts, but managed an approximation of a lazy smile. “So, _heeeey_… could I, uh… I mean, I don’t want to bother you but…”

Her blue-purple eyes held up a rather sufficient mask in the shape of her usual, casual confidence, but behind it all, the fear was palpable. A deep-seated fear within her, and one that, despite how little Satya actually knew about the hacker, she felt she could distinctly comprehend. Behind those eyes was a silent, desperate plea, shocking to Satya only in the sense that it was directed at _her_.

With another, frowning sigh, but a resolute sense of duty, Satya carefully reached for Sombra’s wrist and helped her into the room, closing the door behind the two of them as soon as was practical. She wasted no time in helping the hacker towards the bed, only removing her steadying hands to pull back the sheets.

Her eyes widened in alarm when she turned back around to find Sombra pulling at the straps of her dress, one already fully shrugged off her shoulder. The pleading, but more frustrated look than anything the hacker shot back at her managed to settle Satya’s nerves a little, and she tried her best to look away as she helped the hacker out of her dress.

Sombra’s undergarments were dark purple and _extremely_ revealing, and despite her reddening cheeks, Satya sighed at having noticed so immediately. There was no questioning the fact that she found Sombra attractive, as did probably everyone for whom the hacker fell into their preferences, but seeing her like this didn’t feel right. It probably wouldn’t feel right with anyone, but knowing Sombra’s usual guardedness it seemed somehow even worse.

Satya only managed to relax once she’d settled the covers fully over Sombra’s curled and tired form, though her hand lingered a moment at the small hill where the material crested over the hacker’s left shoulder.

“I like your earrings.”

Satya stilled at the murmured words, hoping the low light would hide her blush. “…Thank you,” she responded lightly, and with some confusion.

Sombra was looking up at her with another loose smile. “The way they…” She shuffled her right hand out of the sheets, extending two fingers and waving them back and forth in the air. “When you turn your head, you know? You’re nice.” Her eyes momentarily widened. “I mean, they’re… _they’re_ nice,” she corrected. Her warm, now slightly devious smile returned almost immediately, paired with a light shrug.

“Well… you’re nice too.”

Her raised hand, with its neatly-trimmed purple nails, reached startlingly close to Satya’s face before pausing suddenly.

“…Wait,” Sombra said with searching, squinting eyes that remained focused intently on Satya for several moments. “You don’t like that.” The hand fell back to the edge of the sheets. “Sorry.”

The guilt in her eyes was far more genuine than any show of concern Satya had ever seen her express, and it made the architech’s mind churn with confused frustration at the same time her heart melted in her chest. She lightly spun the chair that was now just behind her and pulled it closer to the bedside, taking a seat but continuing to provide her closeness. She watched over the impaired and mostly helpless hacker with a mixture of disappointment, pity, and a certain, tranquil rage whose target she couldn’t seem to place with any degree of certainty.

Satya truly didn’t understand why such a barbaric thing as consuming alcohol was still in common practice. She would admit that some part of her felt slightly jealous, and wondered if partaking might make it easier to connect socially, but she couldn’t take that chance. She already had to take enough care in curating how she appeared to others, and couldn’t fathom the idea of willingly forfeiting even the slightest degree of control over herself.

Perhaps the concept simply wasn’t to her personal taste, but the frustrating part was that logically, Sombra should have every reason to think the same. Satya knew enough about her to know that her secrets, her privacy, were _everything_ to her. It seemed inconceivable that she would intentionally put herself in such a state of vulnerability, where any carefully concealed piece of information might pour from her lips at any moment.

Sombra’s wondering eyes had evidently settled on Satya’s concerned frown, and she managed to hold her questioning gaze for long enough that the architech gave in.

“What happened?”

Sombra shook her head lightly as she stretched her back and shoulders and settled further into her pillow. “Just got carried away, that’s all.” Her grin returned as her gaze drifted to the ceiling. “It’s like… being here, it’s starting to feel like I have actual friends, you know? I think I just…forgot.”

Satya exhaled lightly, her heart welling for Sombra but the longing returning all the same.

The people here had been… kind to her, in a much more genuine sense than Vishkar ever had. They strived to make her feel welcome, and included, and were friendly toward her. All of that was something in and of itself, but it had just made her crave something more… whole. Something closer, that she couldn’t even begin to decipher how to pursue.

Perhaps that was why it had meant so much to be trusted.

“You may stay here as long as you like,” Satya offered as softly and warmly as she felt she was capable of, then began to slide her chair back toward her workstation. “You should probably refrain from speaking, in the meantime.”

While she turned back around to face her desk, she considered how tall an order that probably was for the hacker, even discounting her present inebriation.

“…S’okay if it’s you,” Sombra mumbled weakly after a short pause, making Satya still. Before the architech could truly consider what the statement might have meant, the hacker spoke again, her voice far more audible. “Why’s it so dark in here?”

“Because it is nighttime,” Satya replied, still without turning back around. Technically, very few rooms in the watchpoint and none of the actual quarters had outdoor-facing windows, but Satya preferred to more-or-less mimic a day/night cycle in her own space, as she had assumed was the case with everyone else.

“Oh…” Sombra conceded. “You need some more lights in here. Like, a bunch of little ones, on… what are those long things again? _Strings_, that’s right. On strings. That would look nice.”

“…Perhaps,” Satya answered ambiguously, very much hoping she could keep conversation to a minimum. The suggestion hadn’t seemed much in line with Sombra’s personal aesthetic, and that alone was somewhat troubling. Thankfully, the room fell back into silence after that, though it hardly lasted a full minute.

“Is that a triceratops or a grasshopper? Cause it kinda looks like both.”

Satya turned around confusedly before realizing Sombra’s gaze had settled on the shelving units that ran along the wall to the right of Satya’s desk and stretched about halfway across the gap to the head of the bed. The space was occupied primarily by various hardlight creations, most of them solidified renderings of particularly complex geometry that Satya had found pleasing.

“It was… a test of complexity in design, nothing more,” Satya assured with slight hesitance.

“…All your decorations are the same,” Sombra concluded after another look around the room. It was hard to tell if her voice had simply been imbued with the same tiredness, or if she had sounded genuinely saddened. “No memories?”

“Few worth remembering,” Satya acquiesced with a tired sigh.

“Me neither,” Sombra mumbled as she seemed to finally settle in for the night. “Hey… wait,” she began lazily, but determinedly, struggling to sit up again as something seemed to only now occur to her. “Where are _you_ going to sleep?”

“Your question has a faulty premise,” Satya replied evenly.

“…Huh?”

If Sombra ever managed to parse the statement, she said nothing of it, as she was fast asleep minutes later.

Satya attempted to return to her work, finding the task only somewhat successful. At times, she managed to regain her focus and make at least some significant progress in the design, but at other times, her thoughts began to drift to the woman now inhabiting her bed.

She tried not to think of what had been said. It was an incomplete picture, one that had been attained unfairly, and regardless, it wasn’t any of her business.

Instead, she wondered why having an almost-stranger smelling of frivolous party atmosphere residing in her once-pristine sheets, a circumstance that by all rights should have _discouraged_ her from the idea of abandoning her important work and giving in to the temptation of sleep, didn’t seem to be having that effect at all.

She thought of the possibilities the situation presented, more often than not deciding that a sobered Sombra departing without comment was the most likely scenario, and that she shouldn’t hold out hope for anything different.

But mostly, she thought of what it might have felt like if Sombra _had_ laid that hand on her face.


	2. Chapter 2

It was over six hours later when Sombra began to stir from her slumber, uneven breaths and audible shifts of posture taking the place of consistent but thankfully quiet snoring. After several moments, even those stilled all at once.

“S-Satya?”

The architech in question began to spin back around in her chair, but paused short of a complete about-face when she realized that Sombra had sat almost fully upright in bed, apparently unaware of her state of dress as the sheets fell to gather near her midsection.

“…Yes?” Satya managed, slightly flustered but intent not to let it show.

“I… _really_ hope you can tell me how I got here, cause right now I’m kinda drawing a blank.”

Satya had known memory loss was possible after heavy drinking, but it was still something she had always found hard to believe. Though impaired, Sombra had been clearly speaking to her the night before, and that those memories had now become inaccessible to the hacker was only one more thing to find needlessly frustrating.

“You requested entry in a drunken state, roughly an hour after midnight,” Satya answered with a long sigh. “Before that, I don’t know.” She accessed the control panel at her workstation, bringing the lights up to her preferred approximation of daytime levels. Outside, the sun had already risen, and there was no longer a need to avoid disturbing the hacker’s rest.

Sombra, however, immediately clutched her hands to the sides of her head, forcing her eyes closed with a pained gasp. “_Gah!_ Don’t do that! That’s fucking bright as shit!”

It really wasn’t bright at all, but Satya conceded, adjusting to something that more closely evoked a darkened, overcast afternoon. She waited several confused and curious seconds for the hacker to recover.

“That’s… better,” Sombra mumbled, her hands still holding her head as she leaned back into the pillow, still wincing from some amount of pain. “Don’t suppose you have any fancy hangover cures lying around?”

“I have no need for such things,” Satya answered rather more judgmentally than she’d intended.

“Damnit, why’d I have to pick this room anyway?” Sombra stilled at the words, her eyes visibly shooting open even in Satya’s peripheral. “Shit. Why _did_ I? And how did—”

Her voice cut out again, her body unmoving for several seconds before she slowly pulled the bedsheets up to her shoulders in a motion that was at least an attempt at subtlety. When Satya finally turned to face her fully, the blue-purple eyes that stared back were both shocked and tensed with a harsh, apologetic wince.

“Did… did we…?”

Satya rolled her eyes as if putting enough physical force of motion behind the impossibility of the thought would actually remove it from consideration. “It was clear you weren’t planning on sleeping in your dress. That was the extent of it, I assure you.”

Sombra exhaled, seeming visibly relieved. She looked about for the garment, finding it neatly folded on the low dresser at the bedside. “Yeah, I… would never have forgiven myself if I didn’t remember _that_.” She’d forced a smirk to the corner of her lips, intent eyes clearly searching for something in Satya’s somewhat startled reaction.

“Well… did you at least like what you saw?”

Evidently, she’d found it.

Her face had twisted fully into a darkly mischievous grin. She settled into a more relaxed position on her side and curled a few fingers temptingly around the collective edge of the covers.

“…You want a closer look?”

It was a stalemate of intently locked gazes; one Satya, despite her insistence on strict composure, knew very well she was about to lose…

…if Sombra hadn’t immediately winced and rolled roughly over onto her back, clutching the side of her head with a pained grimace. “_Ugh_, never mind. My head really _is_ killing me.”

Satya still looked down at the floor to hide the red in her cheeks.

“…You could’ve just kicked me out, you know,” a more casual, disinterested voice resounded from the hacker moments later.

“You were inebriated,” Satya returned in a matching calmer, but even tone. She looked back up at Sombra, but the hacker’s eyes maintained their gaze toward the ceiling. “I know how important your secrets are to you. It wouldn’t have been right to leave you like that, primed to let them slip of your own accord, or to anyone who pressed far enough. What I _don’t_ understand is why I was the one you turned to for help.”

Under the sheets, Sombra’s body had begun to tighten with visible nervousness, though she somehow kept it from showing on her face. “I… I don’t know. I don’t remember. I just knew I screwed up, _bad_, and had to get out of there quick. Maybe I thought you’d get it? I don’t...”

She trailed off, shaking her head suddenly and letting out a pointed, resolute sigh that ended with a brief _shiver_.

“No, if… if I’m really being honest… I _like_ you. A lot. That was probably why it was you I… I guess I sort of already have it in my head that if it worked out, eventually I might…” She sighed again. “I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”

She had made it rather obvious, but it felt… different, to have it confirmed so unambiguously; to have lost the security of attributing it all to some strange personality quirk of the hacker’s. Satya’s heart fluttered at the same time a fearful chill made her pause.

“…Just now, or last night?” Satya queried with an arched eyebrow and what she hoped was an even enough tone of voice.

Sombra appeared to tense again, and while it was accompanied by the hint of a bleak laugh, she sobered quickly. “Both, I guess.” She somehow shrunk even further into herself. “Seriously… what did I do?”

“Nothing improper,” Satya assured evenly, to Sombra’s apparent, tentative relief. She considered for a moment longer, and finally slid her chair closer to the bed in a motion only she could perform with elegance.

Sombra slowly turned back on her side, now looking up at the architech with unsuccessfully softened attentiveness.

“It was less than a minute between your arrival and when you had settled in for the night,” Satya explained as emotionlessly as she could manage. “You proceeded to compliment my earrings, and then… myself, in general, I believe. You attempted to touch my face, but stopped yourself and apologized. After that, you made no further attempts at contact.”

Sombra had winced and taken on a look of guilt, regardless. “Was… there anything else?”

Satya began to lightly shake her head, but considered again and pressed on. “A few things you said in passing. That you like it here, feeling as though you have friends, and that was why you weren’t careful enough. That you don’t have a lot of good memories. You also… asked about how I decorate my room, and mentioned something about… strings of lights, I think.”

Sombra’s embarrassed, but resigned and at least somewhat relieved expression faded to confusion for a moment, before her eyes widened suddenly.

“You don’t have to explain,” Satya said quickly, starting to turn away. Her chair had made it across the short stretch of floor and back to her desk before Sombra chose to speak.

“No, it’s… I just didn’t think I missed home that much.”

Satya wasn’t sure what to do with that, or with the fact that the words left a pang of hurt in her _own_ heart despite herself not feeling anything of the sort.

“Wait…” Sombra had begun again, clearly questioning something. “If I was here… and there’s no _way_ you would have…” her voice fell in dull realization. “You were up all night, weren’t you?”

Satya tensed lightly at being called out, but prepared to hold her ground.

“…Eh, I’ve done it too, once or twice,” Sombra said casually with what must have been a shrug. “Well, maybe a bit more than that. Still… you really _should_ get to sleep now.”

“When I am finished,” Satya stated firmly.

Sombra was quiet for several moments. “Well, what are you working on?” she acquiesced with seeming interest. She slid her feet to the floor and sat up on the edge of the bed, moving at just the moment Satya turned back around in light surprise.

The hacker had actually pulled the bedsheets around herself to cover her full torso, though the effort at concealment couldn’t with good conscience be called complete.

Satya rolled her eyes and stood, opening a nearby dresser drawer and selecting a light grey, Overwatch-branded T-shirt and matching pajama bottoms. She tossed the set on the mattress beside Sombra, catching only an arched-eyebrow glare shot back at her before returning to her seat to avoid watching the hacker change in front of her.

Which Sombra had already very much started to do.

“The containment chamber is to be multi-purpose,” Satya explained, “but with the specific distinction of a geometrically perfect alignment of the closing outer door panels, so as to prevent passage of even the smallest of biological particles or nanomachines.”

She stole a glance back at the now-fully-clothed, settled, and attentive hacker, who stared blankly at Satya for a few more moments before clutching the sides of her head with a groan.

“S-sorry,” Sombra admitted with a wince and an apologetic look. “I think I _really_ overestimated my ability to process big words right now.”

“It is a mechanical seal,” Satya simplified.

Sombra looked at her oddly for a time, her lips finally twisting into a slight smirk of recognition as her shoulders slackened. “I’m guessing that’s one of those things that sounds way cooler than it actually is?”

Satya stared blankly at the words, but brought her now-more-complete holograms around for Sombra to examine more closely.

“Okay, yeah,” Sombra acknowledged with look of both disappointment and relief, as teasing eyes met Satya’s. “Still, would’ve liked it better if it could do circus tricks.”

“…Those are sea lions, I think, and they haven’t done that in decades,” Satya corrected, finally placing the reference.

“Well, now maybe yours could,” Sombra countered quickly with a smirk.

Satya smiled just a bit at the hacker’s antics, but quietly returned to her work. Now having run the final simulations with each variation, she fitted both scaled versions of the chosen door design into their corresponding frame designs, taking several more minutes to inspect compatibility before sending the files off to Winston for approval.

From the lack of noise behind her, it seemed Sombra hadn’t laid back down, at the very least. It was hard to believe she would ever spend that much time observing without making comments, but sure enough, she was still sitting up when Satya finally turned away from her desk.

“…Okay, you done?” she asked, the question clearly loaded.

“That is all for now, yes,” Satya answered with resignation. She still didn’t feel significantly tired, but she knew from experience that now that her work was complete, she would begin to slip into unconsciousness sometime in the next fifteen minutes at the longest.

“Good,” Sombra answered with a knowing smile, but her face contorted in discomfort as she rubbed absently at her temple. “Cause you know, as much I want to just check out for the day and sleep this off, it’s your turn to get some rest, so…” She stood and gestured to the bed, but her insistence faltered as she looked contemplatively between Satya and the disturbed sheets. “Oh, um… _huh_.”

Before Sombra’s guilty wince and clear impasse could proceed any further, Satya rose from her chair and walked over. “It will be alright,” she insisted pointedly.

Sombra still seemed skeptical, but her expression softened. “Anyway… I should probably leave you to it then. Heh, wouldn’t want to make things more awkward than they already are…” Her face fell just slightly, but she hid it well. “Sorry about… everything.” She noticeably tensed and curled her still-hovering hands closer toward herself.

The almost-touch had now passed through her thoughts one too many times, and Satya couldn’t restrain her curiosity any longer. With a frustrated sigh, she took hold of Sombra’s right wrist, watching the startled hacker closely for objection as she pulled the hand across to meet her cheek. She softly pressed the nervous fingertips to her skin.

A very new, and rather terrifying, but decidedly pleasant sensation coursed through her.

Sombra exhaled lightly as the contact was made, her eyes still widened and her moderately rose-tinted face blankly unmoving aside from parting lips. Satya was sure her own expression was more-or-less the same. Sombra’s fingers lightly step-walked into more comfortable positions as Satya further loosened her already-gentle grasp, but no parting attempt was made. For several moments, the only sound was light, nervous breathing.

The base’s intercom crackled to life, prompting Satya to recoil in embarrassment and Sombra to retract her arm instantly even before Winston’s booming and perpetually tired voice resounded from overhead.

“_For those of you who haven’t been following the situation… well, the good news is that… the_…”

He let out a long, exhausted sigh.

“…_that the _alligator_ some had reported seeing loose on the premises, has been located and contained. The bad news is it was wearing a collar that read _‘two of four,’_ so I would still advise that everyone remain in their quarters until the matter can be investigated further. Thank you._”

The intercom shut off just as quickly, returning the room to silence.

“…Who do you think it was _this_ time?” Sombra finally prodded with feigned nonchalance and still-reddened cheeks. “Jamie? Or Ana?”

“No,” Satya decided, shaking her head. “Either of them would have used a crocodile.”

“Unless they wanted to throw off suspicion,” Sombra countered with a smirk as she lightly tapped the side of her head… and subsequently winced from the apparent pain.

“I suppose that’s fair,” Satya acknowledged. “Either way… I think it’s quite settled now, that leaving is out of the question.” She tried to hide her light smile.

Sombra’s shoulders slackened, her face betraying a slight sense of hopefulness but falling mainly back to something neutral and resigned. “You _know_ I’d probably be fine, right?”

“Assuredly,” Satya agreed, “but if you were only going to rest, I see no reason to take an… unnecessary risk.”

“This… _can’t_ be comfortable for you. I don’t want to…”

With a slight glare and a shrug of challenge, Satya stepped closer, leaning in towards the base of Sombra’s neck and inhaling deeply.

Sombra still carried the faint scents of perfume and sweat, as well as the lingering aroma of… what was that kind she liked? Mezcal? Though moderately unpleasant, it was, on the whole, a reasonably tolerable sensation – or perhaps she was simply growing too tired and impatient to care. Truly, though, after any degree of use it was no longer possible to avoid at least some level of intrusion on her comfort, regardless of whether the bed’s former inhabitant was present or not.

Satya was finding that, all positives and negatives of the available options properly weighed, she would decidedly prefer the former.

She tried to ignore the heavy blush on Sombra’s cheeks as she pulled away to standing height, her voice firm as she stared into widened eyes. “If it is something _you_ are comfortable with, I do not object to your company.”

Thankfully, her bluntness seemed enough to set things in motion. Sombra, rather surprisingly at a loss for words, crawled back into bed and moved over to the far edge, her eyes never seeming to leave Satya’s until the architech herself had taken her own place at the nearer one. Sombra was… soft, and lithe, and so very very warm as Satya’s arms slipped around her and pulled her close, the held embrace the totality of all she’d longed and craved in the depths of…

“…Maybe you shouldn’t let yourself get this tired. Just saying.”

Satya’s eyes snapped open, a sobering shock coursing through her as Sombra’s amused, victorious smirk stared back at her from only inches away. Satya quickly disentangled herself, trembling with immense shame.

Sombra’s grin faded to concern, and she caught Satya’s right arm before it could withdraw completely. “It’s really okay, you know,” she said softly with a faint laugh of reassurance, laying their slowly entwining hands on the mattress between them. “Just… only if you’re actually ready for all that.”

Satya exhaled as she brought herself to a calm, her eyes now sharing a still-fearful, but warmer gaze with Sombra’s.

“Honestly, _you_ can touch me anywhere you _want_,” Sombra admitted with a flustered smirk and the arch of a tempting eyebrow, “but we can talk about that after you get some rest and my head stops feeling like I got punched by my _old_ boss and my _new_ boss at the same time.”

Satya nearly chuckled at the same time she stilled at the warmth in her cheeks, and the bright, lopsided smile of relief that crossed Sombra’s face might have bordered on tearful if it had proceeded any further.

“…Hey, if I don’t…” Sombra winced slightly, though the guilt in it was dulled by an only slowly-fading smirk. “In case I’m too… well, _me_, to say this later… thank you. For… for understanding. I don’t think I really thought anyone would. They all act like _I’m_ the weird one, and probably would have thought I deserved it, but… it’s been so long, I… I’m just not ready for all that stuff to be out there again, you know? Maybe someday, but…”

At the edge of unconsciousness once more, Satya squeezed the hand she was holding, her tired eyes just catching the glint of what she was fairly certain were _actual_ tears running down Sombra’s face.

She thought of what it might be like, to be the one who would wipe them away.


End file.
